Born February 28, 1939. Charles Gayle blew down with hurricane
force - the pun is too obvious - out of Buffalo, N.Y. He drifted in and
out of the first great free jazz scenes of the Sixties, playing with Pharoah,
Archie Shepp, and other trailblazers. But he says now that
his sound then was even more fiery and forceful than it is now, and he couldn't
get a recording date. He drifted. He became homeless. He lived as a squatter
in an abandoned Lower East Side tenement. He found Jesus.

He kept playing. His music retained its hard industrial edge. It sent listeners
through the wall. It busted them out of the day-to-day grind into a divine
ecstasy. It lifted and uplifted. He developed a tremendous facility with
the upper-upper register of the tenor saxophone, so that he could take his
spiritual flights to their farthest reaches. He played wherever he could;
his steadiest gig was in the New York subways.

Eventually lightning struck. In the late Eighties Silkheart Records recorded
three discs him featuring Gayle's ecstatic, holy holy tenor.
One of them, the much-overlooked Always Born, paired him with the
incomparable John Tchicai, a pairing that seemed problematic
at the time but which worked much better than perhaps anyone was aware then.

After that work, and recordings, came a bit more steadily. For the enigmatic
German FMP label he recorded the all-time classic Touchin' on Trane
with musicians as talented and passionate as he: bassist William
Parker and drummer Rashied Ali, a living connection
with the Coltrane legacy that Gayle so
dynamically extends here. But this disc became something of an anomaly in
the Gayle discography: most of the others were much more
furious. Gut-wrenching, metal-tearing, pedal-to-the-floor music.

Much
of it was magnificent: Testaments, Repent, and More
Live at the Knitting Factory are outrageous, outlandish sonic assaults.
Testaments has a rough lyricism that is captivating; the other
two make adroit use of doubled strings from bassist Vattel Cherry
and William Parker on cello.

On some discs Gayle himself plays viola, bass clarinet,
other oddments. His bass clarinet solos are deeply felt and generally more
conventionally lyrical than his tenor blasts. He plays it to particular
effect on FMP's Abiding Variations. But his chief double is piano,
which he has played with increasing frequency and facility in recent years.
He's even planning a piano disc loaded with standards, which could change
popular perceptions of him—as could the majestic and hard-won lyricism
of his tenor playing on the recent Delivered and Ancient of
Days? — allaboutjazz, 2000

Hilliard
Greene has been studying music for more than 30 years and has been
playing professionally over twenty years. His emphasis is in classical,
jazz, rock, blues, R&B as well as the music of other continents and
US regions. Currently he is concentrating on solo performance.

Greene has performed and/or recorded with Jimmy
Scott, currently serving as his Musical Director and with Cecil
Taylor where he was Concert Master for his group "Phtongos." He
has also worked with Gloria Lynne, Jacky Terrasson,
The Inkspots, Rashied Ali, Leroy
Jenkins, Jimmy Ponder, Eddie Gladden,
Vanessa Rubin, Yoron Israel, Cindy
Blackman, Electric Symphony, Charles Gayle,
Jack Walrath, Don Pullen, Dave
Douglas, and countless others.

As a bandleader produced two CD's under with his own ensemble The Jazz Expressions
and a solo bass CD entitled Alone. He teaches classes at The Bass
Collective in New York City as well as privately, and conducts workshops
for both children and adults. Greene performs widely in the New York City
area in recitals, nightclubs, and recordings, and on television and radio
programs. He has appeared in major cities throughout the United and South
America.

Drummer/Percussionist
Michael Wimberly has said of his previous work with Wilber
Morris that "Wilber and I have a truly organic rhythmic union."
He adds "musical telepathy is crucial in the rhythm section in this type
of music." Wimberly's purview of musical inter-action is
wide. He has toured with David Murray, Charles
Gayle and Steve Coleman. His composed pieces have
been commissioned by the Alvin Ailey, Urban Bush Women and Forces of Nature
modern dance companies and the Jeoffrey Ballet. Wimberly
has also recorded with soul vocalist D'Angelo.